It is well-known to use an eraser tip of a pencil or hand-held erasers or rubber thimble type finger covers for turning pages of reading material, counting money and otherwise handling papers to be moved individually. However, this does not solve the problem of holding a book or volume when the person is disabled or needs to have his or her hands-free when referencing manuals, technical literature and the like.
In reference circular No. 93-02 entitled, Assistive Devices for Reading published online (http:www.makoa.org/gov/assistiv.htm) by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20542 (September 1993), pages 1-5 provide a comprehensive list of Book Holders and Book Stands, and on pages 27-28, a list of commercially available “Page Turners” is provided. Among the page turning devices disclosed in Assistive Devices for Reading there is a range from complex, such as, those operated with a pneumatic switch, pedal controls, joysticks to very simple devices, including tapered strips with foam-rubber tips and rubber friction tips on a wooden dowel.
A number of prior art inventions have been made which provide means for holding, supporting and/or turning the pages of reading material, such as books, but such prior art devices are usually costly and complicated. Several prior art inventions are described briefly in the following summaries.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,467,991 to Bailes discloses an armchair reading stand having a pair of rails coextensive with and slidably connected to the undersurface of the book support panel in tongue and groove fashion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,675 to Berger et al. illustrates a page turning device having a support for the book and power driven rotating disc which turns the pages.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,374 to Goldner illustrates a page turning device having a rotatable elongated arm that uses a circular motion to turn pages.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,969 to Ricca illustrates a page turning device whereby after a book is secured, a plurality of rotatable rods are activated to turn a page by using a foot-operated pedal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,046 to Kerley et al. describes a page turning system having a pair of rectangular frames connected to one another by a hinge to vary the inclination of the reading materials and a pair of bent spring mounted wires for holding opposing pages of the reading material open for reading and a variable friction adjustment to enable the force of the wires against the pages to be varied while permitting manipulation of pages by a stick employed by the reader.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,623 to Hoijtink describes a device for holding a publication such as a book or magazine between two L-shaped supports with a brush-like surface that are slidable relative to each other and adapted to accommodate a publication between them.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,857 to Holm describes an adjustable book holder which can be attached to a stand to permit hands-free reading and hand assisted page turning in a sitting or reclining position; pages are held open with a monofilament line.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,441 B1 to Gordon describes a bookstand with a base adapted to fit under a person's leg and a pivotal arm connected to the base to hold the book support or platform; a page retainer extends across the opposing opened pages.
U.S. Publication No. 2001/0010351 to Schutze illustrates a book holding device having an adjustable support plate.
U.S. Publication No. 2001/0023916 to Armstrong illustrates another book display apparatus having a transparent front section made from Plexiglas.
None of the prior art references provides an inexpensive, easy to operate, multiple use book holder and door-operated page turning device combination that holds a page open with no obstruction of view and accommodates a wide variety of reading materials, including but not limited to, hard-covered books, paperbacks, magazines, catalogs, bound papers, sheet music and the like. The present invention provides such a device.